MURDER EP.22/The Making Of
Part 3 On the Richard v Rob v Kross fight: The conclusion to the fight, when Richard saves Kross from being killed, and Richard beats Rob down, was scored to the climatic music used in the final fight between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in Civil War. Originally though, this scene was left unscored until on 12:35 A.M. on June 24th, 2016, when re-reading the scene, I realized that the music in that moment was the music needed to give this scene the power it deserved. It was also the moment I grew a deeper understanding of Rob's motives beyond the "I'm Special and I want everyone else to know it!" reasoning. This wasn't a battle of a great hero vs a greater evil. This is a tragic fight. This moment was a battle between three friends who once were very close, and loved each other deeply, but let envy, greed, fear, and hate not only divide them, but warp them. This was in a sense, a love triangle between three people that literally damaged the island itself, and the people on it. It killed people. It broke people. It changed people. Rob wanted to be special, Kross wanted a future with Richard, and Richard was just there, torn between a friend he had bonded with who betrayed him, a former lover whose actions were seemingly unforgivable, and a son who was born out of a marriage that he had felt forced into. All they really wanted was to be loved. To be important to someone, and that desire is what destroyed them. On Richard and Rob's Deaths Both deaths were planned even in the early stages of the season's development, back in early 2014. They were both planned to be done by Kross as well, although the circumstances leading up to their deaths changed DRASTICALLY. Initially, Richard was meant to be killed with an accidental sword wound by Kross, before Kross silently left in shock, ala Bellatrix killing Sirius Black. The soundtrack for Richard's death was very recently discovered and placed on June 16th, 2016 after I heard it. Unlike the battle music, I did not change the writing itself to go with the music. I just found a good place to begin it. Before I put the soundtrack on, the scene was un-scored. In the published version, Kross shoots Richard with a poison laced bullet, flees, and the poison is what ends up killing Richard. The scene in which this occurs was not part of the 2014-early 2015 plans, but rather a more recent edition, around the time of A Fiend in Sheep Clothing's release. Initially for Rob, he was meant to be killed in the original plans for the 9th episode of the season almost immediately, with the reveal that he was the Fiend of 1989 occurring then before he would be shot. His death was also originally at Rob's own house. As time went by, plans changed, and Rob's role became far more prominent in the 208-210 trilogy of episodes, with the revelation that he was the Fiend being far more impactful. Part of the reason why Rob's death changed also had to do with greater development on the "Kross-Richard-Rob" friendship and Richard's backstory. When I realized that Richard was bisexual and that Kross was gay (Yes - you can learn things about your own characters that you never even knew until you realize it. It's one of the beautiful things of writing), I also came to realize that there had to be an antagonizing force, and that force became Rob. So, when it came time for Rob and Kross to finally meet for Rob's death scene, a lot had changed. Rob and Kross had both grown as characters, and become (in my opinion) more realistic and human. They had faults, they had emotions, and they had history with one another. With their first encounter also detailed in Part Two, and the previous two episodes having been building towards Part Three in terms of the Kross and Rob relationship, their final encounter with one another was far more drawn out, and hopefully, more impactful. Rob's final words, "I just wanted to be special", solidify the primary motivation that Rob truly wanted. Ultimately, Rob just wanted that feeling he had when he was friends with Kross: that feeling that was needed, wanted, and loved, and with that final admission, when Kross shot him, that was the moment that Robert Gullahorn died. Part Six You see, often what I would do is I would re-read parts of previous episodes, find a small nugget of gold, and then expand on it. A Fiend in Sheep's Clothing - Part Two, the last work before ADWTD, had the guests discover the truth about The Five and The Mythology of The Fiend, as a flashback sequence in voiceover showed the process of the creation of the mystery that this second season has been built on. It also introduced the founder of the Church of the Fiend, Eduardo Gullahorn. I had no intention of exploring this further, but as I re-read the comments, I saw this: So I thought about it ... and I thought about it... and I realized that there in the past... was a nugget of gold. Themes Choices and the Consequences of Our Actions TBA A Loss of Faith As the production of A Deal with the Devil neared its completion, the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman was released. Re-watching the scenes, I realized that that there was a scene that I had completely ignored, a scene that stood out to me as more important than I initially realized when I saw it in theaters: The Question of Superman . In Part Six and in this episode as a whole, one of my goals had been to bring about questions about two figures: The Devil and God. Obviously the episode has a good focus on The Devil with the Fiend, Kross, and the process of Brandon Faust's creation in Part Four and Part Five. However with the introduction of Limbo, I knew that I needed to shift into questions about God, questions that I knew people would relate to. Months earlier, in the initial stages of the episode, before it became six parts, I only had bits and pieces of the episode written. Omni and Speedy's initial introduction to one another, before he meets Omi, was one of those pieces, and in that section, I had written this quote: Now I wrote this quote initially because I intend it to play a minor role in the series finale as well, but I thought about this quote as I was expanding on Part Six, and I thought about what I had already written. Michael's moral crisis with the creation of the Fiend lie, Omni's complex moral questions about God allowing the existence of evil, about why he would not take action to free the trapped souls in Limbo, about the relation of Destiny and Free Will.... and as I pondered and pondered and pondered, I came upon a realization. A Deal with the Devil is also a story about a loss in faith and the complex philosophical questions humans face.